Snakes Welcome

It was still too cold for the snake to move.  Her head was peeking through the fence into the pasture, but most of her was in the dog yard behind my studio.  Head to tail she was about three feet long.

Zinnia and Fate would pay her no attention, but if Bud saw her he would probably kill her.  I would have just put her on the other side of the fence, but if Zip was prowling around, then he’d kill her.

So I guarded the milkshake while Bud did his business then we all went back to the house for breakfast.

A half hour later it had warmed up enough that the snake was curled up in the dog yard.  Zip was safely in front of the house under the car but now KittyAnne was in the pasture not ten feet away.

The chickens are in mating mode, so when ever I get close to them, they hunker down with a flat back and stand still. That made it easy to pick KittyAnne up and put her into the barnyard.

Now the pasture was safe, but a while anyway, so I moved the snake from the dog yard into the pasture under a tangle of thorny brambles.

I did what I could to protect the milk snake.   There are so many predators and they, of course,  are predators themselves.

Between Bud and Zip, I find the body parts of lots of small animals in the yard.  Mostly moles or voles, but also mice, an occasional bird, once a squirrel and snakes.

Somehow it bothers me the most to find a dead snake in the yard.

Maybe because they generally have a bad reputation.  Many people are afraid of them and will kill  even the ones that aren’t a threat to humans.

But I find snakes fascinating and beautiful.

I love the feel of their skin and how their bodies move through my hands.  The patterning of their scales and skin mesmerizes me.  And now that I know that they smell with their tongues, I see that flicker of tongue as a greeting, a way of getting to know me.

I wish there was some way I could let the snakes who live on and around the farm to know that I’m happy to have them here, doing their part in the keeping the rodent population down, sunning themselves on the rocks and just doing what snakes do.

Sometimes I worry that Zip and Bud will scare them all away.  But that hasn’t happened yet.